1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product identification data management system and method for managing identification data attached to products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bar codes are affixed on most products dealt with in stores. A bar code is a combination of varying-width parallel bars and spaces and represents numerical data or symbolic data. The bar code is read using a bar code reader as a dedicated input device, so that data of the corresponding product can be obtained. Therefore, data concerned with each product can be rapidly input with accuracy without using an input device such as a keyboard to manually input data. Accordingly, bar codes are attached to many products and are effectively used.
Typical data represented using a bar code affixed on a product includes, for example, JAN (Japanese Article Number) code. The JAN code consists of 13 or 8 digits. The JAN code includes a country code indicating in what country the corresponding product was produced, a manufacturer code indicating the manufacturer of the product, a product code specifying the product, and a check digit. Advantageously, the quantity of stock and the sale proceeds can be immediately grasped using barcodes affixed on respective products.
When a bar code consists of, e.g., 13 digits, data indicating the product code corresponds to only 5 digits. Unfortunately, detailed information such as the name of the product and its price cannot be obtained from the read JAN code. In the application of bar codes for product management, an approach of using a bar code as ID, i.e., identification data for database retrieval is used. The bar code can include only identification data to specify the corresponding product, so that the number of digits can be reduced. As identification data included in a bar code, for example, a product code, an order number, a delivery number, a drawing number, a manufacturing management number, an operating instruction number, or a serial number is used.
A user uses a bar code reader to scan a bar code attached on a product, thus reading data of the bar code. Accordingly, bar codes are not suitable for checking the quantity of stock of an item after products of the item are arranged in a showcase. Hence, an approach of adding a radio frequency (RF) tag to each product is proposed.
The RF tag is also called an electronic tag (integrated circuit tag; IC tag). Data concerned with a product is read using radio waves generated from the corresponding tag. It is unnecessary to move a tag reader close to a product in order to scan a tag affixed on the product. Advantageously, RF tags are attached to various products such as clothing, food, daily needs, and books. The RF tag can have various capabilities for stock management, sales management, ensuring traceability, theft prevention, and information service. In addition, the RF tag has extremely higher information processing capability than those of already-existing bar code systems. Data can be rewritten or added to the RF tag.
The above-mentioned RF tag is being minimized as a combination of an IC chip and an antenna and its price is being plunged. There are signs of widespread proliferation of RF tags. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-287810 (Reference 1) discloses a technique of affixing an RF tag, called an electronic product code (EPC) to identify each individual product, on each product for product distribution management.
The bar code systems have already been widespread as mentioned above. The application field thereof is not limited to recording codes of various products with registers serving as point-of-sale (POS) terminals at the point of sale to count sold products. For example, data corresponding to respective bar codes are registered in a database so that the bar codes are used for accounting treatment of sold products. Various processes are established in product management using bar codes.
To achieve greater proliferation of RF tags, it is necessary that RF tag systems coexist with the already-existing established bar code systems for the bar code system users' convenience and making the smooth transition to the new systems. For this purpose, for example, both of a bar code and an RF tag are temporarily attached to each product.
Each RF tag has larger data capacity than that of each bar code. Accordingly, RF tag data represented by the RF tag can include bar code data represented by the bar code. When the magnitude relationship between two kinds of data capacities is found, identification data of one identification data system (large-capacity data system) with a large data capacity contains identification data of the other identification data system (small-capacity data system) with a small data capacity, so that the two kinds of identification data can be related with each other.
In the above-mentioned relating, identification data of the small-capacity data system is written in identification data of the large-capacity data system. Regarding the attachment of a tag including identification data of the large-capacity data system to each product, disadvantageously, the tag cannot be attached to the product unless a bar code including identification data of the small-capacity data system has already been attached to the product. In addition, if new identification data of the small-capacity data system is used, it is necessary to form tags including identification data of the large-capacity data system so that the identification data of the large-capacity data system includes the new identification data of the small-capacity data system. In other words, it is necessary to always recognize identification data of the small-capacity data system when the corresponding tag is fabricated. Disadvantageously, the fabrication of tags and the management of identification data are difficult.
To overcome the above disadvantages, a technique of mixing a keyword of one data system, indicating the features of an individual, as an exchangeable keyword into identification data of the other data system is proposed. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-276477 (Reference 2) discloses such a technique.
According to the above technique, since a keyword of one data system indicating the features of an individual is mixed as an exchangeable keyword into identification data of the other data system, keywords can be flexibly set to some extent. However, it is necessary to find a keyword by keyword matching. According to this technique, therefore, it is necessary to generate identification data of one data system in consideration of the other data system. Disadvantageously, the dependence between two data systems cannot be eliminated.